Page 37 of Double Play

Her mother’s forehead creased. Maggie could have told him that ploy wouldn’t work. Her parents despised flattery or even compliments. They liked to be accurate with theirpraise.

“Hello, Dwight.” Both her parents introduced themselves with a respectable amount of politeness. “What’s a center fielder?” asked her mother. “Is thatimportant?”

“A center fielder’s job is to catch the fly balls that are headed for the center of the baseball field, which is usually as far as you can get from homeplate.”

They looked blank. Maggie loved her parents, but right now she was cringing. “Home plate is where the batters stand to hit the ball, Mom. You’ve watched games with me, you know whatitis.”

“Of course,Maggie.”

“A center fielder has to be very fast and have a great throwing arm. It helps if they can jump. And as a matter of fact, the center fielder is considered the captain of the outfield. Dwight is also the captain of the whole team, which is voted on by the players. That means he’s respected and loved, as he should be. He’s even been in a Nike ad.” She touched his arm, which was close to her face. It felt tense as iron. Was he nervous about speaking with herparents?

“Well done, Dwight.” Her father flashed an awkward thumbs-up, as he used to do when Maggie acedatest.

But her mother still looked confused. “But this is a lesser team, isn’t it? What do they call it again, the lowerleague?”

“Minor League.” Maggie gritted her teeth. “It’s a Minor League team, but it’s Triple-A, which is the next level below, so it’s practically the MajorLeague.”

“But notquite.”

The disdain in her mother’s voice cut Maggie to the core. Not on her behalf, but on Dwight’s. “He’s plenty good enough to make the majors. It’s just a matteroftime.”

Dwight laughed, but it sounded forced to Maggie’s ears. “Maggie’s leaving out the fact that I made one trip to the majors and it didn’tgowell.”

“Don’t be silly,” Maggie said. “That was just your first time. It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” She glanced back at her parents in time to catch their appalled expression. “That’s a baseball saying,” she said quickly. “A quote from Yogi Berra. Don’t worry, I’m not all of a sudden saying ‘ain’t.’ I mean, other than just now. But that didn’tcount.”

Her parents exchanged an alarmed glance. “Maggie, you really need to rest. This is exactly what we were so worried about when you went to Texas. Of course you got overheated. The climate is not amenable to someone with your challenges.” Her mother toyed with the chain of her horn-rimmedglasses.

“There’s a research position here we want you to consider,” her fatheradded.

Oh lord, she didn’t have the energy for this right now. “You’re both right, I really should rest. I’ll call you when Igethome.”

“Make sure you see Dr. Hill inperson—”

Maggie blew a kiss and ended the call. Dwight shoved his phone into his back pocket. She desperately wanted to sleep, but her nerves were bouncing like guitar strings. Dwight, her parents,fainting…gah!

“How are you feeling?” Dwight asked. His quiet, neutral tone made her even moreanxious.

“Tired,” she admitted. “I’m sorry aboutallthis.”

“Sorry? Don’t say that. Damn, I was so worried.” He squatted by her bed again and pushed a strand of hair away from her face. “You should nap now, but I’m going to stick around until you’re ready togohome.”

She nodded, but wasn’t quite ready to let the moment go. “My parents can be a littleoverbearing.”

He didn’t answer, so she shifted to peer up at him. His jaw was set. “Don’t worry about it. Go to sleep, sweetheart. I’ll be here when youwakeup.”

She did as he said, mostly because she couldn’t keep her eyes open a second longer. Her last thought before she drifted off was to wonder why he wasn’t atthegame.

She workedat home for the next couple of days. Dwight got her settled in and brought her grocery bags full of snacks and healthy beverages. On the surface, everything seemed normal, from his magnetic smile to the way he lifted her spirits with his jokes. But she knew something waswrong.

He either couldn’t explain it or didn’t want to. But ever since her fainting episode, he’d seemed quieter thannormal.

She was screwing up her courage to ask him why, but she ran out of time. On her first day back at the stadium—where flowers from Crush and Wendy greeted her at her desk—he called her from theclubhouse.

“Big news, baby. I got called upagain.”

“What?” Her stomach did a crazy spinning wheel kind of move. Dwight was leaving, which made her want to curl up and cry, but she had to act happy because this was his dream. She had to support him, not whine about how she wanted him with her. This wasn’t about her, it was about him. “Congratulations! That’sfantastic!”

“They’re flying me out late tonight, but you probablyknowthat.”

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